Erdogan’s words don’t pull the trigger — but they load the gun |
The April 7 terrorist attack outside Israel’s consulate in Istanbul should end any lingering illusions about the consequences of Turkey’s political climate under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkish authorities were quick to respond, engaging the assailants in a firefight. One of the three attackers was killed, and the other two were wounded. Ankara condemned the attack. Outwardly, the Turkish state did what any responsible government should do.
But the deeper question is not how Turkish police reacted. It is why such an attack took place in Turkey.
Early indications suggest at least one of the attackers had links to networks associated with Islamic State. If confirmed, that would place the assault within a familiar pattern: jihadi actors targeting Israeli, Western, or Jewish-linked sites amid regional turmoil. Turkey has seen this before, including the 2016 Islamic State bombing in Istanbul that killed Israeli tourists. In that narrow sense, the April 7 attack is not unprecedented.
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What is different, however, is the political environment in which such violence now occurs.
For years, Erdogan has positioned himself as one of the world’s most strident critics of........